Friday, June 10, 2011

UBS To Connecticut: Top This

Further evidence, as if any were necessary, that “leveling the playing field” between Connecticut and New York tilts the playing field in favor of New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey -- whose job hungry governor, Chris Christie, is waiting over the line to catch Connecticut businesses that tumble into his hands – is offered by Mayor Michael Bloomberg of the Big Apple.

There has been some chatter that USB, the large Swiss bank that has its North American headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, Governor Dannel Malloy’s old political stomping grounds, may move back to New York, a prospect that has Mr. Bloomberg swooning with delight, though he manages to conceal his expectant joy in the usual political Blah, according to CBS in New York:

“Asked what it would mean, Mayor Michael Bloomberg had a bullet list.

“’More jobs, more tax base, great thing. I’ve been saying for the last ten years there’s a reason to come to New York – not knocking Stamford or any other place,’ said Bloomberg. ‘People want to live here. And, places like Stamford, there’s a great raison d’être to live there, but there’s also one for New York, and I think it depends on who you’re trying to attract for your company.’

“Bloomberg said the value proposition of New York is that this is the intellectual capital of the world.

“’This is where young people in particular, but also even people my age, want to come. Cultural institutions, the challenge of working with others who are motivated - the best and the brightest. All this builds on itself,’ said Bloomberg, who added that there is a reason why New York’s population keeps growing...

“UBS left New York City 15 years ago and has reportedly been looking at the thus far unbuilt Three World Trade Center and at a Brooklyn location.”

Connecticut lost much of the luster that attracts business when former Governor Lowell Weicker saddled it with an income tax. The Democratic dominated General Assembly has since rigged the Weicker tax with a new progressive feature that will in the future allow its progressive General Assembly to dun the millionaires huddled in the state’s so called “gold Coast,” which does not shine as brightly as it once did. The state has since imposed on its citizens the largest tax increases in Connecticut’s history, part of Mr. Malloy’s “shared sacrifice” budget.

Governor Andrew “No New Taxes” Cuomo of New York will no doubt be delighted to welcome home USB, a business version of the prodigal son.